Exactly 25 years ago, the Ukrainian national team played a draw with the Russian team in Moscow at the Luzhniki stadium as part of the Euro 2000 qualifiers.
Then young Andrey Shevchenko in the penultimate minute did not allow the Russians to go to Euro 2000.
Shevchenko's goal against Russia
In 1999, in the capital of Russia there was a complete anti-Ukrainian hysteria and an unconditional confidence that the Russian team would “crush” on the field the team of Jozsef Szabo.
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On the day of the match, the publication Sovetsky Sport came out with the headline on the front page “Beat the crests, save Russia”.
The excitement before the game was wild — tickets for the game were sold out long before the day of the game. From the hands of scalpers for the most fashionable seats asked as much as $600. Ukrainian fans were allocated 7 thousand spectator seats in the arena.
As a result, at the packed to capacity Luzhniki, which is 84 thousand spectators, the Russians were leading until the 87th minute. Oleg Romantsev's team was only a few minutes away from qualifying for Euro 2000, and the referee's final whistle blew. However, Andriy Shevchenko's free kick into Aleksandr Filimonov's goal filled the arena with dead silence and despair.
The Russian commentator's reaction to Shevchenko's goal is also epic and unforgettable: Aaaah, my God. And Filimonov throws the ball into his own net.
The draw allowed Ukraine (20) to take second place in its group, behind France (21), and advance to the playoffs. But in the decisive matches, the blue-yellows lost to the Slovenian national team on aggregate (1:2, 1:1).
According to Goal.com, Shevchenko's goal against Filimonov was among the top 7 goals in his career.
